Katherine Creswell reaps the bounty that was the 2015 winter squash harvest.

I spent my senior year at Bates 10 years ago trying to answer one question: Can Maine feed itself?

Through my year­long environmental studies thesis project, I interviewed farmers, Maine Department of Agriculture representatives, social service agencies, and food distributors trying to figure out the state’s food advantages and challenges.

My hypothesis was that Maine could feed itself, if some barriers were removed: high consumer costs, distribution barriers to rural communities, and, most important, a reluctance on behalf of many Mainers to change the way they eat.

It is now 10 years later — November 2015 — and I am about to gather a month’s worth of empirical evidence on the relative ease or difficulty of eating completely locally.

My challenge: For 30 days, I will consume only foods grown in Maine or processed with 100 percent Maine ingredients, including often-overlooked ingredients such as salt, rennet, and cooking oil.

The obstacles: Saying “No” to treats offered by others; making everything from scratch even in time-crunched work weeks; and not overlooking anything — like spices used in sausage.

The advantages: I manage a farm and have unlimited access to free vegetables and eggs, I know many food producers around the state, and I like to cook.

This morning I drank my last cup of coffee, and just now I ate my last piece of chocolate for the next 30 days.

The goals: To expand my cooking repertoire; inspire others to eat more locally; and arrive at an answer to the question that has been nagging me for a decade.

It is Nov. 8, a Sunday evening, the night before I intend to swear off all non­-locally grown and produced foods for a month. This morning I drank my last cup of coffee, and just now I ate my last piece of chocolate for the next 30 days.

I excitedly think through my menu for the following day, preparing some mashed potatoes with kale, garlic, and onions to take for lunch. I have thought through a lot of the upcoming month, and have a few go­-to recipes in mind as well as some quick snacks and sweet­-tooth-­satisfying desserts (see recipes at the end).

The month will yield more than I expect, however, from cooking lessons and the simple joy of sharing a meal, to a more practical take on food security than I had before. I go to bed while cracked oats soak on the stove top.

Maine whole wheat challah with poppy seeds.

I live on Maine’s mid coast, but work managing a farm outside Waterville, in south-central Maine, necessitating very early mornings, a long commute, and late evenings.

Before beginning the diet, I made a list of all of the Maine ingredients I have available to me from the farm: greens, storage crops, popcorn, dry beans, eggs, and herbs.

I also listed the items I could obtain from the multi­farm CSA I joined for the month — flour, wheat berries, butter, fruit, milk, sweeteners and meat — and made a short list of the items I needed to locate elsewhere, such as cornmeal and oil.

On a typical weekday, I have tonight’s dinner and tomorrow’s lunch complete in 30 minutes by boiling rice when I get home, chopping and sauteing vegetables, and whisking together a flavorful sauce. Without access to my usual arsenal of condiments, and lacking enough of one essential ingredient — time — I would need to add flavor another way.

Cooking Lesson One: Slow roasting

I could no longer rely on those convenient flavor providers of my culinary past, such as soy sauce, miso, chutneys, and curry pastes. I quickly learned that deep, satisfying tastes from a Maine-only flavor palette require long, slow roasting, overnight simmering on the wood stove, and daylong soaking or fermenting.

I this spirit, I decide to roast a pound of CSA-sourced chicken thighs, a day ahead, in a Dutch oven with some vegetables. I cut up delicata squash, potatoes, carrots, onions, and garlic, and add them to the pot with the chicken and some sunflower oil. I put it in the oven at 400 F and cook it for over an hour.

The dish sets the bar for meal quality for the month with a technique that is simple, roasting, and ingredients that are commonplace for any Mainer, especially if sunflower oil is replaced with butter. I have achieved the flavor I craved through this cooking method, independent of added condiments.

The only downside I see is that this cooking method takes a very long time.

Cooking Lesson Two: Break recipes into steps and prepare them in advance

Halfway through the month, some good friends invite me over for dinner. Not wanting to limit their hospitality, I regretfully decline. But they call back and, being farmers themselves, offer a list of all the Maine products they have at home, so I compromise by offering to bring the main course while they provide the salad.

I dreamed up a Maine version of empanadas and had begun preparing them a few days prior. I already had on hand a pie-crust dough with sifted wheat flour, sea salt, a little apple cider vinegar, butter, and water. I had a skillet hash of potatoes, garlic, onion, kale, and ground beef already cooked that I would use for the filling.

Creswell’s Maine version of empanadas are filled with skillet hash of potatoes, garlic, onion, kale, and ground beef.

Two hours before I am due at my friends’ house, all I need to do is assemble the empanadas — the process seems quick and easy. I fold small rounds of crust over small piles of filling into crescent shapes, bake at 350 F, and hope for the best. They come out browned and steaming and look beautiful. I am proud to share them with friends, and feel satisfied to welcome friends into my experiment.

Cooking Lesson Three: Leave your kitchen comfort zone

As a cook, I prefer plain, whole ingredients. While I am no kitchen coward, I do embrace the quick and easy: boiled rice, quinoa, fast sautés, or, even better, raw vegetables that are the epitome of fast foods. And I am a conservative spice user.

Given those predilections, I figured that maintaining my Maine diet would not be an extraordinary feat.

Still, as I move through the month, my quest for taste and flavor pushes me throughout my kitchen comfort zone, and I begin to discover what flavors, techniques, satisfaction lie on the other side of quick and easy.

By mid-month, I have created some of my most flavorful meals ever as my chosen cuisine benefits from the taste and freshness of all local ingredients combined with the time I have dedicated to preparing them.

Cooking Lesson Four: Keep it simple

With a few kitchen successes under my belt and fully charged energy reserves, I am convinced that the Maine diet is sustainable on a practical level.

But practical often means simplicity.

For one long bike ride, I try granola bars made with rolled oats, butter, salt, and honey, baked in a shallow pan with an egg to hold them together. From the pan, they are tasty, but in my jersey pocket they turn to crumbs. After conducting some research, for my next ride, I stick with milk and honey in a water bottle with great success.

Creswell’s Maine pumpkin pie.

Six days from the end of the diet, I reflect on the goals I started out with. I have certainly pushed the boundary of my kitchen comfort zone and am confident that my eating habits will continue to evolve as I keep experimenting with new cooking techniques.

However, I’m finding that that I simply don’t want to give up certain foods. After busy work weeks, weekends at my house are precious. This time of year, they are filled with ample reading and long bike rides — and tall cups of coffee. At the outset, I was prepared mentally to enjoy tall cups of herb tea instead, but to those who know, it is just not the same.

For me, after a month of Maine-sourced diet, I have a personal answer to my thesis question. While I can sustain myself on Maine foods alone, I don’t want to restrict my diet — which leaves me unconvinced that eating a Maine-source diet is realistic.

I think I have a better question than “Can Maine feed itself”?

Now, I think I have a better question than “can Maine feed itself.” The better question is How can Mainers eat more local ingredients every day, for their own health and that of the environment and local economy?

Anyone can — and many do — grow some of their own produce. They can purchase, trade, or barter with another food producer. They can access some of the 4 million pounds of farm products donated to food pantries around the state. They forage greens, nuts, mushrooms and hunt for game and fish. Still, the barriers to closing Maine’s food loop that I identified a decade ago still remain: higher costs, inadequate distribution, and entrenched eating habits.

Katherine Creswell, who is on a California-to-Maine bicycle ride, pauses at Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas.

For my health, my community, my environment, and most of all, superior taste, it is an easy decision to consume all of the local items that I have access to.

I will always keep a variety of flours and grains around, and I’ll spend a little extra cash on sunflower oil for its superb high heat tolerance and I’ll stick with Maine oats for batches of granola.

I’ll substitute local maple syrup and honey for all of my sugar needs, and I’ll probably buy meat every now and again just to support Maine’s hard-working livestock farmers.

I will rely on weekly loaves of homemade bread using local flour, and because I can tell the difference in taste, when I buy butter, you can bet it’ll be local. My diet will hover around 70 percent Maine foods, and I will eternally enjoy the rice, chocolate, green tea, raisins, and peanuts that make up the balance. I hope you conclude the same.

After managing The Farm at Kennebec Valley Community College and teaching in its sustainable agriculture program for two years, Creswell is now far from any Maine-sources food, enjoying a cross-country bicycle trip.

Sweeteners

Oil/Other

All Maine Granola

10 cups rolled oats (Maine Grains)

1 cup melted butter (Halls Family Farm)

2 teaspoons sea salt (homemade or Maine Sea Salt Co.)

1 cup maple syrup

2 eggs

Cook on very low heat butter, oil and salt together until homogenous. Thoroughly mix into oats, then crack in two eggs and fold together. Spread onto a large baking sheet and bake at 300 F for 15 minutes. Stir the granola with a spatula, then bake another 15 minutes. Allow to cool then break into chunks, or stir right away to minimize chunks.

Mix all the dry ingredients together, then add the wet ingredients and stir well. Gently stir in the fruit, if using, at the end. Let sit five minutes while you heat a griddle to medium temperature. Onto hot griddle greased with butter, spoon large tablespoons of batter. Cook on each side for two to three minutes. They are wonderful eaten hot with fruit, jam, or syrup, and are still good eaten cold as a snack with yogurt and applesauce, for example.

Maine Empanadas

2 cups sifted wheat flour (Maine Grains) 1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup butter, cut into pea­sized chunks

2 teaspoon cider vinegar (Sewall Orchard) Pinch salt

2/3 cup cold water

1 pound ground beef

1 pound potatoes, diced

1 onion, diced

1 head garlic, diced

1/2 bunch kale, thinly chopped

½ pound carrots, diced

2 tablespoons sunflower oil (Henry Perkins)

Salt to taste

Mix dough ingredients together. Work the butter into the flour with your fingers. Let sit while you prepare the filling. Gently brown meat in a skillet with salt to taste. Remove and set aside. Heat oil in skillet and add chopped onion and garlic; salt to taste. Cook gently until soft.

Add diced potatoes and diced carrot and continue to cook gently until potatoes are soft and beginning to brown. Add chopped kale, stir it in, then turn off heat. Kale will wilt in the residual heat. Divide pie dough into 12 evenly sized balls. Roll one out on a lightly floured surface to a diameter of about 8 inches. Place a few tablespoons of filling just beneath the center line. Fold top of dough over filling and press onto bottom with a finger pinch, fork depression, or other method.

Score the top of the empanada with a sharp knife (I use different markings to denote different fillings) and set on a baking tray. Load a full baking tray into a 350 F oven and bake about 30 minutes. Empanadas are done when they are slightly brown on the surface.

Winter Salad

1 whole small purple cabbage, shredded

3 large orange carrots, shredded

1 bunch cilantro or parsley, chopped

1/2 cup cider vinegar

2 teaspoons salt

a couple dashes of hot sauce or to taste

I use a food processor to shred the cabbage and the carrots. Place in a large bowl. Add chopped herbs and stir or shake to mix. Mix vinegar, salt, and hot sauce together and pour over the salad. Eat right away, or allow to sit overnight for a juicier, more complex-tasting salad.

This is a “non-exhaustive” list of Maine food producers from whom I purchased products during the Maine Food Month. You can search the MOFGA site for organic CSA farms, and search “winter” for farms selling produce in the winter.

The Garcelon Field lights illuminate Commons on a March night. Inside is the traditional and restorative “home base” where students can gather and reconnect during mealtime. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)

In the mid-2000s, as Bates worked with architect Sasaki Associates on plans for a new dining facility, it was up for grabs whether Bates would continue with its distinctive tradition of a single dining hall where everyone dines under one roof.

But during their campus interviews, the architects heard a common response from students, faculty, and staff.

“Maybe because our students are so busy, it felt even more important for them to have a home base where they can come together and reconnect over meals.”

Bates didn’t always have a single dining hall. The college once had two, one for men and one for women, until 1967, when dining became coed with the closing of the women’s dining hall in Rand Hall.

From then until 2008, Bates’ single dining hall was Memorial Commons, in Chase Hall.

“Not a hip, swinging building, but it is great complement to the Bates campus.”

In February 2008, the new Commons building opened. Located between Garcelon Field and Alumni Gym, at the terminus of Alumni Walk, the 60,000 square-foot structure is clad in brick, granite, slate, copper, and ample glass.

In the collegiate gothic style, “it is not a hip, swinging building, but it is great complement to the Bates campus, and it has enormous architectural integrity,” said the late architectural critic and author Philip Isaacson ’47.

The Commons dining operation comprises one large dining hall plus two smaller dining rooms and a mezzanine; a multi-platform servery; kitchen and storage space; and office space.

Showcased as case study in sustainability.

Long a leader in sustainable dining, in 2013 Bates Dining earned a third star for sustainability from the Green Restaurant Association, joining just a handful of U.S. colleges or universities with the rating.

It’s also distinctive that Bates runs its own dining operation rather than outsourcing to a commercial food service. With some 90 employees, Dining Services serves more than 4,800 meals every day of the academic year to 1,700 students.

Cheryl Lacey (left) and Christine Schwartz aren’t above adding some levity (and lobster claw boppers) in the service of the Bates dining experience. Lacey is director of Dining Services, and Schwartz is assistant vice president for dining, conferences, and campus events. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)

As they’ve turned a building into a community-builder, Schwartz and Director of Dining Cheryl Lacey recently talked about both the simple lessons they’ve learned (such as “never install any shelving that’s higher than your shortest employee!”) and the big ones.

1. Change Means Opportunity

As Bates planned its new Commons, Schwartz used the impending change as a catalyst for professional development among her staff.

“The profile of our work was going to be very different in a new building,” she says. “So we invited the staff to tell us if they wanted to do something different. If it was possible, we’d help them make the move.'”

The plan paid off in staff satisfaction. Longtime servers moved into the kitchen, dishroom workers moved to the bakery, and so on.

“In some cases, this was the first time in their lives that someone asked them, ‘What do you want to do?’” says Schwartz.

2. Be Trendy

The Napkin Board lets Bates students comment, criticize, request, and praise. This napkin’s request for a BLT station gets a hopeful response. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)

To keep tabs on changing student tastes, Lacey and Schwartz use the venerable Napkin Board, a wall in Commons where students pose questions or make comments on a napkin, and an anonymous student working for Dining Services writes replies on the napkin. (There’s an online version, too.)

And students, surprisingly, “seem to be connoisseurs of fake maple syrup,” Lacey says.

“Some requests are important today and gone tomorrow,” she says. “But some persist, like the latest fad: Reddi-wip.” Cereal tastes change, too. Lacey just finished a survey that shows a new favorite, Fruit and Yogurt Special K.

3. Stay Flexible

The servery features a marketplace model, where students take their food from one of several platforms — the Round, with a deli, brick oven, and salad and pasta bars; the Bobcat Bar, featuring a range of hot dishes, including the famous shepherd’s pie; plus the Bakery, Grill, and Choices, for alternatives such as gluten-free foods.

“We wanted versatility, and that has paid off.”

The Bates team resisted the temptation to define the platforms by menu item. “We didn’t name a ‘taco station,’ for example,” Schwartz says. “We wanted versatility, and that has paid off.”

The flow of diners to and from the platforms is fluid, easily handling 500 students in a 30- to 45-minute period. “Combine that with open seating areas on two levels, and you have a very appealing dining environment,” Schwartz says.

4. It’s a Classroom Too

Commons is a place to feed intellectual curiosity as well as the body, and Bates Dining gets valuable help from students and faculty who wish to conduct dining- or food-focused projects.

“We live for this sort of thing because it allows us all to be part of a larger Bates experience,” Schwartz says.

Recent projects have included vegan trends and a scholarly paper by two faculty members who investigated the college’s 2009 H1N1 virus outbreak.

A recent senior’s thesis compared traditional food thermometers to a newer style, specifically looking at their self-sanitizing capacity to prevent bacterial and allergen cross-contamination. “We found out that the traditional, and much cheaper, style is more effective at preventing cross contamination,” Lacey says.

5. Know Your Chef

The old Bates dining operation in Chase Hall was cramped and outdated, and the chefs did their work far away from — and two floor levels below — students.

Now, chefs work at platforms out front. Speaking literally and figuratively, first cook Roland Theriault notes that “we’re on the same floor as everybody else.”

For first cook Roland Theriault, moving from the old kitchen in Chase Hall’s basement to Commons means that “we’re on the same floor as everybody else” — literally and figuratively. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)

Theriault spent his first 19 years at Bates working in the basement of Memorial Commons. Now, at the Bobcat Bar, he gets a chance to talk with his diners.

“Sometimes students just need an adult they can vent to.”

For students increasingly curious about their food, this has been a boon for Bates, and for the Dining Services chefs. It’s more than just a service relationship where students grill chefs on what’s in the sauce.

“It goes beyond that,” says Schwartz. “They can talk about home, studies, life, and what’s happening in their lives. Sometimes students just need an adult they can vent to.”

6. Trays, Begone!

Even before Bluto piled his tray high with foodstuffs in AnimalHouse, the tray has been a symbol of the college dining experience.

But trays are on their way out. As Bates students take more ownership of their dining experience, they treat each serving like a course in a restaurant.

The only thing missing from this iconic Commons lunch scene are trays. They’re on the outs. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)

“And that’s what we want,” Schwartz says. “We don’t want you to fill a tray so half the food gets cold while you eat the other half.”

New students still grab a tray and load up, but older students know better, Lacey says. “When you’ve been here awhile, you realize you don’t need to — you don’t want to!”

7. The Menu Is Just a Starting Point

Bates students are savvy about what they want to create by mixing and matching items from several platforms. The most popular foundations are pita pockets, bagels, tortillas, and wraps.

What emerges can be anything from bruschetta to a strawberry tart, or almost anything with pesto on it.

“They are invested in their food. They are always thinking about it,” Schwartz says. “And they don’t want a cafeteria experience. They want a dining experience.”

That takes creativity, she adds. “I equate it with being in your own kitchen. They feel comfortable enough to say, ‘We own this.’ And that’s wicked cool.”

]]>http://www.bates.edu/news/2015/10/21/seven-dining-lessons-from-seven-years-of-new-bates-commons/feed/7Purposeful Work Unplugged to present Dining Services’ Schwartz, Laceyhttp://www.bates.edu/news/2015/10/05/purposeful-work-unplugged-to-present-dining-services-schwartz-lacey/
http://www.bates.edu/news/2015/10/05/purposeful-work-unplugged-to-present-dining-services-schwartz-lacey/#respondMon, 05 Oct 2015 19:10:42 +0000http://www.bates.edu/news/?p=97153The two executives in charge of Bates College Dining Services share lessons from their lives and careers in a Purposeful Work Unplugged Q&A on Oct. 7.]]>

Leading a team of more than 100 that serves more than a million meals a year, the two executives in charge of the Bates College dining operation will share lessons from their lives and careers in a Q&A at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, in the Fireplace Lounge in the Bates Commons, 136 Central Ave.

In the hourlong Purposeful Work Unplugged discussion, titled Behind the Napkin Board: Big Business, Right Here on Campus, Darby Ray, director of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships at Bates, will interview Christine Schwartz, assistant vice president for dining, conferences and events, and Cheryl Lacey, director of dining services.

The discussion will explore work, career paths and finding purpose at Bates.

The Purposeful Work Unplugged series is open to the public at no cost. Sponsored by the Purposeful Work initiative at Bates, the series presents notable alumni, staff, faculty and guests in reflection about careers and traits that support meaningful work. For more information, please call 207-786-6128.

A native of New York, Schwartz came to Bates in 1997 as associate director of dining services, became dining director in 2002 and in 2012 took the helm of the Dining, Conferences and Campus Events office. Her Bates achievements include overseeing the creation of the college’s dining Commons, which opened in 2008, and playing a central role in making Bates a nationally recognized leader in sustainable food service practices.

Schwartz earned a bachelor’s degree in social science at Lynchburg College, in Virginia, where she started her food service career, first as a student worker and then as catering manager. She has also held collegiate dining positions at Sweet Briar College, in Virginia, and at St. Mary’s College in Maryland.

Lacey grew up in rural Maine. The first member of her immediate family to attend college, she graduated from Middlebury with a double major in psychology and literary studies. Though Lacey had intended to pursue a career in psychology, working in dining services as a student gave her a passion for collegiate dining.

After graduation, she worked in Middlebury Dining Services for 14 years before trading in the glorious Green Mountains for the dramatic coast of Maine. She joined Bates’ Dining Services in 1998 and became director in 2012.

Any Bates student will tell you that gathering together in one dining hall, enjoying food prepared in kitchens nearby, creates community.

Learning why food, place and hospitality are such a great recipe for communal experience was the topic for students in the Short Term course “Food, Culture and Performance.”

Each morning, the students gathered with their professor, Myron Beasley, to “learn the theory associated with food politics, community, and the issues of hunger.” They also studied Maine farming, the area’s history and sustainable practices.

In the afternoon, they trekked to nearby Nezinscot Farm to work with farm co-owner Gloria Varney, their partner for the course.

At the organic farm, theory met practice as students learned just where their food, quite literally, gets born.

And on May 21, the course culminated with a “performative dinner,” created and served by students to 50-plus guests at the Turner farm. The meal featured food raised on the farm and prepared by the students, including meat from animals slaughtered earlier in the spring.

A student clears food from the tables during the outdoor performative dinner at Nezinscot Farm on May 21. (Sarah Crosby/Bates College)

A performative dinner, explains Beasley, an associate professor of American cultural studies and African American studies, is akin to performance art. With the latter, “the artist is both the subject and the object of the art-making.”

During a performative dinner, “the food becomes both the object and subject, to make known the cultural politics surrounding the object — in this case, the food.”

In its May 28 edition, The Portland Press Herald took note of the distinctive course offering, publishing a major feature under the headline “Bates students dig in to understand farming.”

Below, 12 photographs by Sarah Crosby capture what Beasley calls the “integration of food and culture and community.”

5:58 p.m.: Gather ye Bobcats

On the quilt and T-shirts, the phrase “A Place to Gather” is the students’ interpretation of “Nezinscot,” an Abenaki word meaning “to descend upon.”

6:04 p.m.: Garden party

During a pre-dinner tour, guests walk through the farm’s herb garden, dubbed the “Medicine Garden.” Students encourage the guests to find and pick an herb that “calls to you.” Tibetan prayer flags wave in the breeze.

6:12 p.m.: Bee my honey

6:26 p.m.: Cultivating the liberal arts

Ron Begin of Lewiston samples chèvre (goat cheese), kale and cilantro pesto, and chive butter. All of the food was prepared by students.

“From the natural sciences to the humanities to the social sciences, everything is right there on a farm,” Beasley says. “When I think of the liberal arts, it is about integration and interdisciplinarity, and we can see all of that functioning on the farm.”

6:40 p.m.: Farm to table

A platter of meat — roasted lamb and smoked turkey — from animals raised on the farm. “We looked at what we wanted to eat, what we had available to us as far as resources, and designed a meal around that,” says Gloria Varney. “This meal was the culmination of five weeks of experiential learning.”

6:55 p.m.: Dining director

Myron Beasley directs students as they serve food. Beasley has presented the course twice before, telling the Press Herald that exploring ideas about food “is a way of unraveling a lot of social and political issues.”

7:01 p.m.: Successful recipe

Gloria Varney and Myron Beasley listen to student stories during the meal. “The ultimate goal for the course,” he says, was to “integrate this notion of food and culture and community.”

7:04 p.m.: Mealtime story

Christina Felonis ’17 of Athens, Greece, rises to tell the guests about meals in her Greek family. The class built on the concept of hospitality, and both students and guests told stories to enrich the communal vibe.

7:12 p.m.: Wine and dine

A guest reaches for the dandelion wine, made from springtime dandelions on the farm.

“For students to have access to this place and to learn from it is profound because not many people will ever have this kind of experience,” Beasley says.

7:30 p.m.: ‘Go to it!’

Students serve food and clear dishes.

During the weeks leading up to the meal, Varney taught the students what they needed to know to prepare and serve a meal. That day, she told them, “OK, we’ve gotten here. Go to it!” And, she says, “They just came through.”

7:40 p.m.: When day turns to dining

The students hand-made the dinner decorations, including these felt orbs. “It’s a beautiful day and a feast on a farm,” said dinner guest Jeff Gould of Portland.

“At the end of the day, at the end of the week, at the end of the month, at the end of the year — the impact is just huge,” says Mersereau-Sears.

]]>http://www.bates.edu/news/2014/06/24/dining-services-breadmaking-cereal/feed/3Video: Students dish out creativity in Iron Chef competitionhttp://www.bates.edu/news/2014/05/13/video-chews-iron-chef-competition/
http://www.bates.edu/news/2014/05/13/video-chews-iron-chef-competition/#commentsTue, 13 May 2014 18:42:56 +0000http://www.bates.edu/news/?p=78274Seven students create dishes from their own recipes, with the "theme ingredient" being food available in Commons.]]>

For some students, the menu in Commons is just a starting point.

They mix and match items from the various food stations, and what emerges could be anything from bruschetta to a strawberry tart, or almost anything with pesto on it.

“Students are fantastic chefs in their own right,” says Dining Services director Cheryl Lacey. “It’s amazing the things they come up with.”

Brian Kennedy, an economics major from Port Washington, N.Y., is one of two Bates seniors to receive 2014 Watson Fellowships.

Kennedy joins 42 other college students from across the country, including his Bates classmate Simone Schriger of Los Angeles, who have received this prestigious grant that supports a year of travel and research outside the United States.

Kennedy will travel to Japan, Australia, Ireland and Canada to study commercial production of marine algae and its potential for revitalizing coastal economies in the United States.

A program of the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, the Watson Fellowship supports a year of international exploration in any field for select graduating college seniors. Each fellow is awarded $28,000 for 12 months of travel as well as college loan assistance as applicable and an insurance allowance.

Recipients come from select private liberal arts colleges and universities across the U.S. This year’s 43 recipients were selected from a pool of nearly 700 candidates overall and 150 finalists.

Growing up along the North Shore of Long Island, Kennedy says, “it’s hard not to interact with seaweed — definitely my first experience with seaweed was probably just throwing it at my siblings.”

But through his Bates studies and other experiences, including a 2013 internship with Maine’s marine algae and aquaculture industries, he developed a fascination with the broad potential of seaweed and other algaes in food and fuel production.

“What fascinates me in economics is the interface between industry and natural resources,” he says.

Kennedy credits his time at Bates as key to his success at competing for the Watson. He found that feedback and support from the Watson Fellowship Committee at Bates was invaluable as he honed his application.

And, he adds, “One thing that Bates really has taught me to do is to just take my own initiative and go with that. It’s so easy to get to know the professors and other people who can help you make something happen.”

Japan points the way

Growing up on Long Island, and later during visits to coastal towns in Maine and elsewhere, Kennedy has witnessed how market and ecological changes have harmed local economies. “Communities that I thought would boast functioning resource economies,” he says, “were changed into regions dependent on federal programs, tourism and property values.”

Kennedy believes that algae, both cultivated and wild-caught, offers a viable means of reviving coastal economies and restoring their working relationships with the ocean. Both seaweed in its myriad forms and microbial algae are relatively sustainable as crops, and relatively easy to harvest wild or to grow.

Bates College senior Brian Kennedy, recipient of a 2014 Watson Fellowship, poses for a portrait in Pettengill Hall.(Sarah Crosby/Bates College)

Key to Kennedy’s Watson research is the investigation of a disparity he perceives in the algae industries of Japan vs. the three Western countries. In Japan, he points out, seaweeds like kombu, wakame and nori are dietary staples that support diverse and sustainable production practices.

But the industry is less developed in Australia, Ireland and Canada. Food plays a smaller role, and industrial chemicals a larger one. Algae is the feedstock for biofuel production in Australia.

“I want to explore aquaculture and harvesting to compare production techniques, management and community impact,” he says.

In particular, he’s interested in structural obstacles — from regulations to financial practices to cultural customs — that curtail the expansion of the marine algae industry in the West.

Kennedy will interview and work beside people in every facet of the field. “I feel confident that I can build a network of communities, processors, seaweed harvesters and aquaculturists, microalgae producers and resource managers that will allow me to accurately assess the potential of algae to sustain coastal communities’ working connection with the ocean.”

He will publish his findings online and in print, notably in his own “algaezine” that will document his findings from the Watson year.

Kennedy got a head start on his algae research last summer, thanks to an internship at the Maine Technology Institute, a Brunswick nonprofit lender that funds technology companies. Assigned to look into MTI’s algae and aquaculture portfolio, he undertook interviews that gave him insight into the basic mechanics of seaweed and microalgae cultivation.

]]>http://www.bates.edu/news/2014/04/03/2014-watson-fellow-brian-kennedy/feed/0Summer Student Work: On Vermont farm, Lubetkin ’16 raises awareness of community programshttp://www.bates.edu/news/2013/08/28/summer-student-research-on-vermont-farm-lubetkin-16-raises-awareness-of-community-programs/
http://www.bates.edu/news/2013/08/28/summer-student-research-on-vermont-farm-lubetkin-16-raises-awareness-of-community-programs/#respondWed, 28 Aug 2013 14:35:26 +0000http://www.bates.edu/news/?p=68027Megan Lubetkin '16 raised not only produce and livestock, but awareness of programs such as food shares for families in need and cooking classes for at-risk and refugee youth.]]>

As a leadership apprentice at “The Farm,” a program of the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps, photographer Megan Lubetkin ’16 has raised not only produce and livestock, but also awareness of such Farm programs as food shares for families in need and cooking classes for at-risk and refugee youth.

Megan Lubetkin ’16, at left, with a student from Winooski, Vt., who took part in the afterschool Food and Farm Program at The Farm at VYCC. (Courtesy of the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps)

1. You served this summer as the de facto communications officer for The Farm at VYCC. But that’s not what you originally signed up for, was it?

When I first got here, in April, I was told that we would have a little celebration in about a month and it would be great for The Farm if I could make a video about it. My boss knew that I could make videos as he had seen my YouTube channel. Since then, in addition to my regular duties, I have devoted most of my evenings and weekends to the whole communications piece, including video and photo documentationof various farm programs.

2. What kinds of exposure have you won for The Farm, and what have you learned along the way?

I’ve gotten all of my videos broadcast on television stations around Vermont, as well as on YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook. But when I think about how to reach more Vermonters, it’s been like, “Oh, the video is online. Well, what’s the next step? It’s on TV, but what’s the next step?” I’m always thinking and talking to others about how we can tell more people about what we are doing, because we are such a community-based program and highly reliant on grants and donors.

Planting time at The Farm at VYCC. (Megan Lubetkin ’16/VYCC)

3. How do you shape your messages about The Farm?

I try to create a message around that the energy The Farm has, with all the different diverse groups of people working there every day and the enormity of the whole program. It’s difficult to not get overwhelmed, so I try to keep it fairly light and enjoyable. I want people to walk away knowing how involved we are with the community and feeling that they want to become involved as well.

4. How did you hear about this program?

Last summer I worked for the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps in the conservation program, on a trail crew. I was living in the woods right near The Farm at VYCC, in Richmond, and while I was on the trail crew, I worked weekends doing some weeding in exchange for fresh produce. So when I was deciding what to do this year, I had The Farm in the back of my mind.

5. Had you done farm work before?

Very little. When I came to Bates, I did some gardening in the Bates College Garden and I co-head that with Michelle Devoe ’15. I picked this opportunity because I have a big interest in learning how to farm and grow food. I think everyone should know how to do that.

6. As a VYCC agricultural leadership apprentice, you’ve worked with youth, disadvantaged families and community volunteers. What’s an example of the leadership piece?

We’re constantly managing the youth on the farm in projects and educational programs, but we also do a ton of volunteer management. We can have 30 volunteers every single day, from all walks of life, all ages, all levels of farm experience. It can certainly be a challenge working with such different people at the same time and on projects that are definitely strenuous and time-sensitive. Managing all that goes on at the farm takes a great deal of leadership, positive attitude and drive.

7. How has your work on The Farm at VYCC expressed the goals of the Bates Environmental Internship?
The whole idea of the Bates Environmental Internship is about working with others and being involved with environmentally minded projects. I think organic farming to feed people who can’t afford to buy food, working with diverse groups of people from at-risk youth to refugee kids to Ben & Jerry’s volunteers — I mean, the list could go on — but essentially, connecting the community with our very down-to-earth, in-the-dirt project is right in keeping with what the Bates Environmental Internship is all about.

]]>http://www.bates.edu/news/2013/08/28/summer-student-research-on-vermont-farm-lubetkin-16-raises-awareness-of-community-programs/feed/0Bates earns third star for ‘green’ dining, joining just five other schools in categoryhttp://www.bates.edu/news/2013/07/31/green-restaurant-association-three-star-sustainable-dining/
http://www.bates.edu/news/2013/07/31/green-restaurant-association-three-star-sustainable-dining/#commentsWed, 31 Jul 2013 20:41:13 +0000http://www.bates.edu/news/?p=67418Bates Dining recently earned a third star for its sustainability rating from the Green Restaurant Association.]]>

Opened in 2008, Commons exemplifies Bates Dining’s commitment to sustainability. Among its many “green” features, it makes good use of natural light to save on electricity. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College.

Bates Dining, which in 2002 was the first food-service operation in higher education to join the Green Restaurant Association, recently earned a third star for its Green Restaurant sustainability rating from the GRA.

The improved rating, the GRA’s second-highest, puts Bates into rarefied company. Only five other U.S. colleges or universities boast three-star ratings, and Bates is the only such Maine institution.

Long recognized for its sustainable practices, Bates implemented 65 action steps to become greener still and earn the third star. Those steps covered the waterfront in terms of both function and scope, ranging from the use of water-saving faucet aerators to the high proportion of vegan and vegetarian items in Bates’ food purchases.

“We’re ecstatic” about the increased rating, says Cheryl Lacey, director of Bates Dining Services. “I think we have a true commitment to sustainability.

“We knew there were schools here in New England, notably Harvard and Boston University, that had gotten the three-star rating. We have had a strong focus on environmental responsibility for a long time now and we felt confident that we could compete with those schools.”

In certifying commercial and institutional dining operations, the GRA rigorously verifies that its member institutions are doing what they claim. The GRA awards points for sustainable steps in seven categories: energy, food, water, waste, disposables, chemicals and pollution reduction, and buildings.

Bates Dining purchases grass-fed beef from Cold Spring Ranch in New Portland, Maine, a practice that helps to bolster the college’s sustainability rating. The farm is owned by Gabe Clark ’02, shown here with his herd of beef cattle. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)

With 175 as the minimum score for the three-star rating, Bates earned 212.68 points. Especially point-worthy action items were the vegan-vegetarian food purchases (separate items totaling 30.75 points), the use of renewable energy sources (20 points) and composting (totaling 35 points). See a breakdown of Bates Dining’s GRA point score.

In fact, it’s a particular point of pride that Bates Dining puts very little into the waste stream. “We divert 82 percent of our waste,” says Lacey. “Very few of our peers can make that claim.” The college reduces waste through traditional recycling and composting, and by sending post-consumer waste to a local pig farm. (The GRA doesn’t award points for that particular practice.)

GRA consultants were especially impressed by Bates’ use of electric vehicles and by the engagement of a certified-green pest-control firm, Kennebunkport-based Atlantic Pest Solutions.

“Dining has a huge impact” on institutional sustainability, Lacey says. “There’s so much potential for waste, and it really points out the fact that Dining Services needs to be part of the educational process.”

For instance, last November a student group played a key role in encouraging students to take only as much food as they can eat. In its successful campaign in Commons, the Personal Awareness, Wellness and Social Happiness Committee (PAWS) suggested ways for students to form new habits. They offered an eye-opening statistic: If every student took one ounce less food than usual — about the equivalent of three french fries — Dining Services would save $45,400 annually, or 77 percent of Bates’ comprehensive fee for one student for 2013-14.

Opened in 2008, the college’s Commons building embodies Bates’ sustainable philosophy. It employs all manner of energy- and water-saving technologies, was designed to accommodate robust waste-reduction practices and even boasts a dining hall ceiling made out of wood recycled from an old Thomas Edison phonograph factory.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and ReNew America are among national institutions that have honored Bates Dining for its green practices.

In addition to Harvard and BU, the other schools operating three-star GRA food services are Kent Career Technical Center in Grand Rapids, Mich.; Northeastern University, Boston; and the University of Minnesota (Minnesota Landscape Arboretum). All told, 124 discrete food-service facilities, including restaurants and institutional facilities, received three stars.

Seventeen facilities were awarded four stars.

Founded in 1990, the Green Restaurant Association has worked to provide convenient and cost-effective tools to help the restaurant industry reduce its harmful impact on the environment. The GRA founded the green restaurant movement and is one of the pioneering founders of the green business movement as well. Learn more.

An overhead view of students lunching in Commons. (Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)

Over the summer the new Office of Dining, Conferences and Campus Events has implemented some exciting and innovative changes.

Most notably, we introduced a new scheduling system for campus spaces, called EMS. EMS is considerably more user-friendly than the old system, has many advanced features and will, in time, connect to a comprehensive community calendar.

We revamped our summer concert series, and were pleased to have blues and roots musician Corey Harris ’91 inaugurate the new Concerts on the Quad.

For the fall, we will be relocating bookable tables from Commons Room 131 (“the Fishbowl”) to the far end of the mezzanine. Students wanting a more private dining location can now use 131. This change was made in response to a study done by students last spring that focused on the Commons dining experience.

As usual, we spent time this summer reviewing the student menu cycle, resulting in many exciting changes. Look for new recipes from the student Iron Chef competition and the Cat’s Cup Culinary Challenge.

Don’t forget that if you’d like to work in Dining Services, please contact us early, as positions fill fast.

Last, but certainly not least, Bates Dining has received a rating of three stars from the Green Restaurant Association. Bates is only one of six collegiate dining services in the country with a three-star rating, and the only college in the state of Maine to hold this honor. Learn more.